Well with Alabama a much more minor incident happened (the Langhaman incident detailed above) and that ended up costing them about 20 scholarships and 10 games of forfeits. That was the first time that Alabama was ever on probatation.
But your larger point stands, historically the NCAA doesn't care about cases like this unless they have a bone to pick with the team involved. For whatever reason, the NCAA wanted to hammer Alabama and they seized on the first thing they could.
Right now, the NCAA has no problem with USC and they are probably the 2nd most profitable team right now behind ND so they won't be touched.
To be clear, I don't think that USC knew directly what has going on, but they also made it their business not to know. That is how all schools do it. I don't blame them a bit.
The problem is that it is like the 55 mph speed limit. It makes everyone a violator and the NCAA can pick and choose who to hammer.
Doesn't it seem weird to you though, that the people who ultimately became Bush's agents and marketing agents didn't just tell him to settle with these knuckleheads and be done with it? That's the one thing that isn't adding up for me.
Regarding Alabama, I think the impression back then and previously was that the SEC and the older SWC had a lot of trouble with boosters 'greasing' the players, and 'boosters' are seen as affiliated with the school. The NCAA probably was looking for a way to hammer them, perhaps as much for prior stuff as the 1992 issue. Although, UCLA's basketball program during the John Wooden days was probably as bad as any of them, with that Sam Gilbert guy taking care of everything for those players all those years. But as you said, they weren't going to take down St. John.
What really pisses off all of us out here is that Bush soiled the program with this thing. One of the best parts of the Pete Carroll era is the way the players have behaved (for the most part) on and off the field, as compared to the 10-15 years before Carroll arrived. USC had that bad stretch with the attitudes, the shaky academic guys getting in and staying eligible suspiciously, the defensive lineman doing the big dance on the field after a sack....when they were down by 20 in the 4th quarter, all that crap. Carroll's guys just didn't do this stuff. They still had some problems, off the field fights a couple times, stuff like that. But when starting running back Chauncey Washington didn't keep up in class, he was ineligible for two consecutive years and they took away his scholarship. He got eligible and got it back. Most of the guys seem pretty well-spoken when interviewed, they say the right things, it has just been a better group and a better program. Then stupid Reggie (primarily stupid step-dad) goes and throws a mudball all over Heritage Hall. They couldn't just wait another 11 months until the kid got drafted to start making the money? Ridiculous. Reggie's mom has worked in the sheriff's department for years. You would think that the law would have some meaning, at least with her.